Evolution of Knowledge

An exchange with a mobile-channel enthusiast led me to a train of thought about the role that mobile computing plays in the evolution of knowledge that contextualizes the technology a bit better for me. I'm still of the mind that it has wondrous potential that has yet to be fully realized, and that sentiment is reinforced by the consideration of the way in which mobile extends the evolution of knowledge.

Knowledge has historically been a thing that exists inside the mind of a person - and I believe this remains true to a great extent, even today. But the way in which information gets into the mind of a person has changed over time and continues to evolve, and mobile has the potential to become the next step in that evolution.

Consider, first, the storage and spread of information prior to writing, or at least prior to the ability to store knowledge on a physical device (that is, a scroll or a book). Information was stored in the minds of scholars and sages - and the querent would travel great distances to access the knowledge of such a person, in the nature of a pilgrimage to Delphi to consult the oracle.

And while knowledge has been demystified, it's still a common practice today to seek wisdom of those who possess it: the notion of a college education is based on this ancient tradition, where a young person seeking knowledge leaves home, travels quite some distance, and spends a few years in the tutelage of the scholars. In more than two thousand years of history, this has not changed.

The profession of scholarship has grown, and the knowledge disseminated, such that there is a university located in any town of reasonable size where a body of scholars is available to obtain knowledge. The ability to hire a scholar, which I'd loosely define as anyone with a graduate degree, gives a commercial operation the ability to have knowledge at their immediate disposal, right in their office. I don't have a sense of how long this has been a historical practice, but I expect it might be a tradition of centuries or millennia for anyone of much influence to have professional advisors close to them, at their disposal.

Move forward in history to the evolution of writing and the ability to store knowledge in physical devices - and while a book or a scroll seems laughably primitive by modern standards, it was a great leap forward: the ability to extract the knowledge from the human mind, to fix it in a physical object in the form of writing and illustrations, did much to forward the evolution of knowledge.

And in the same way, dissemination of knowledge in written form has evolved through history, where there were once great libraries such as the one at Alexandria where all knowledge was stored, and to which a querent would make a pilgrimage to gain the knowledge he might seek. Every great nation, to this day, maintains a national library - and in terms of dissemination, most cities have a significant collection of books and manuscripts, even outside of the academic institutions.

There are public libraries in most industrialized nations, and private individuals maintain libraries in their homes. Prior to the Internet, even a modest middle-class home had a bookshelf and a set of encyclopedias, and even after the Internet, any reasonably educated person, which might be anyone with an undergraduate degree, maintains a bookshelf, from which they can carry forth whatever knowledge they may need at any given time, such as a traveler abroad who takes with him a guidebook and a translation dictionary - the knowledge he needs at for a given purpose.

Step forward finally to the evolution of computer technology. Prior to the Internet, a vast amount of knowledge was stored in databases. Accounts vary, but a few generations before the evolution of the personal computer, this information was not widely accessible and was stored in a few databases, then spread to corporate headquarters offices, then to the branch offices.

The Internet merely facilitated access to the information stored in the various repositories - I've not done the research, but I would guess that the vast majority of information that we consider to be "the internet" is likely stored in a few dozen cities, and a few hundred data centers, but is accessible at any office location via a personal computer with a connection to the network.

Mobile computing further extends access to this knowledge - with a notebook or laptop and a wireless modem or network card, it's possible to access knowledge in any location. Granted, some distinction is made between the "true" mobile device that is worn in a holster and the notebook computer that is carried in a briefcase - but this is on the far edge of the quality of convenience, and the core functionality is the same.

The point of all this rumination, if there indeed is a point to be made, is that mobile computing is not an outlying force, but an extension of knowledge that makes it accessible or portable - and more to the point, this is not entirely a new phenomenon. It's merely a different technology for accomplishing the same thing that has been possible in the past: to access knowledge.

Consider, as an example, the need of a person traveling abroad to have knowledge of a foreign city. He can, in advance of his travel, speak to a person who is familiar with the location, read a travel book, or study the location on the Internet at his home computer. If he feels the need for portability, he can hire a local guide to accompany him, bring along a guidebook, or access information on his mobile device. In each case, person, book, and computer all serve the same purpose.

Seen in that way, mobile computing is not the knew and unheard of phenomenon that many of its enthusiasts claim. It can be touted as being more convenient, more comprehensive, or more accurate - though this remains entirely arguable, as the device has no power to determine the validity of information and is only as good as its sources. But more to the point, it's merely another method of accomplishing the same goal.

And so, the sense that we need to "re-think" for mobile at the most fundamental level is entirely mistaken. It is just another device, another "thing" that exists in the context of an old and established set of needs, just another step in the evolution of knowledge and the methods by which it is accessed it.

We can ponder the specific capabilities of mobile computing, and we can design knowledge sources to accommodate the particular limitations and capabilities of the device - but the principle use of the mobile channel, and the fountainhead of all the value it is capable of providing, is well established.